Railtour Provider

[Masboroughlad]

Is there room/potential for a new Railtour provider?

 

[atraindriver]

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[Cowley]

Speaking as someone who was involved with running a now-defunct railtour provider, I'd say no. It's not as easy as people think it is, and there's precious little money to be made.

I remember reading a few times over the years that it was literally only the last one or two coaches in a tour that potentially (if sold out) made a profit for a railtour company (ie the other 9/10 coaches paid for staffing, loco and rolling stock hire charges, access charges etc).
It’s always seemed to me a bit like owning a football club, something you do because you love doing it, as there’s far easier ways to make money.

 

[atraindriver]

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[Cowley]

(I think I need 27.689...)
I remember the Mid Hants having ‘The Green Train’, their own locomotives, a mainline connected base, a volunteer crew that would work long hours and a starting point that was very near to London, and even with all that it was still very difficult to make work (and it was certainly a more difficult way to make money than just running their normal MHR services).
I think it’s pretty incredible how many railtours actually run in this country. There’s a limit to what people will pay, yet even just in the next two weeks there’s at least four different tours due through Exeter running behind a variety of different traction...

I think that regular tours a la The Tin Bath, Shakespeare Express or The Jacobite are the ones that are likely to provide the most income for operators due to the savings made with regular agreed paths, volunteer staff knowing what hours they’re needed for and so on.
It’s amazing how things have moved on though from the days of SLOA, David Ward, Bernard Staite, Ethels, 60mph running etc...

 

[43096]

I remember reading a few times over the years that it was literally only the last one or two coaches in a tour that potentially (if sold out) made a profit for a railtour company (ie the other 9/10 coaches paid for staffing, loco and rolling stock hire charges, access charges etc).
It’s always seemed to me a bit like owning a football club, something you do because you love doing it, as there’s far easier ways to make money.

It's the old saying of "you can make a small fortune out of it, but only if you start with a large fortune".

 

[DarloRich]

Is there room/potential for a new Railtour provider?

no - the economics don't stack up.